1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a document management system in which an image forming apparatus which generates image data and an information processing apparatus which manages the image data are connected to each other via a network, a document management method, an image forming apparatus, an information processing apparatus, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, document management systems have been known in which a document management server which stores/saves document information such as image data of documents created by reading originals such as printed characters, drawings, and images using a scanner unit and document data created using a word processor or the like in association with additional document information such as keywords, and a document management client which searches the information and, for example, displays and prints retrieved information are connected to each other via a network (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. H08-202731).
Also, some printing systems have been known which store print data and log information for the purpose of preventing information leakage and auditing so that administrators can search and read the stored print data and log information (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2004-118243).
Also, some document management systems have been known which manage the results of various jobs such as a print job and a scan job in the form of log data (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2002-189686).
FIG. 23 is a diagram showing an example of the arrangement of a network document management system. This network document management system is constructed such that a document management client 1700, a document management server 1701, an image transfer apparatus 1706, and a digital multifunction apparatus 1707 are connected to one another via a network 1708.
The document management server 1701 is comprised of an attribute management server section 1702, an attribute database file 1703, a volume server section 1704, and a volume file 1705. The attribute management server section 1702 stores attribute information such as folder attributes, document attributes, and page attributes in the attribute database file 1703 using an RDBM (Relational Database Management System) which is a database management system for managing inclusive relations of folders, documents, and pages and attributes thereof so as to manage image data and document data as documents in hierarchical folders. The volume server section 1704 manages actual data associated with pages using the attribute management server section 1702 and stores document information such as image data and document data in the volume file 1705.
The document management client 1700 is a client of the network document management system and, for example, searches and reads documents managed by the document management server 1701. In this case, the document management client 1700 sends various requests to the attribute management server section 1702 using SQL (Structured Query Language) protocol defined on TCP/IP protocol and receives the results of processing of the requests from the attribute management server 1702. Also, when processing on image data or document data is requested, the document management client 1700 sends various requests to the volume server section 1704 using RPC (Remote Procedure Call) and receives the results of processing of the requests from the volume server section 1704.
The digital multifunction apparatus 1707 is a multifunction image forming apparatus having copying function, scanner function, printer function, facsimile (FAX) function, and so forth. The digital multifunction apparatus 1707 carries out various jobs such as a copy job and a print job and manages the results of such jobs as log data as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2002-189686.
On the other hand, according to the invention of the present application, it is possible to manage log information on a job and image data used in the job (the contents of an image). To this end, for example, it can be envisaged that image data read from a scanner or image data printed by a printer as well as log information on a job are transmitted to the image transfer apparatus 1706 using a network protocol (for example, FTP). It should be noted that log information is comprised of device information indicative of a device name and an IP address, user information indicative of a user name and a division ID, and control information indicative of a job name, the date and time of starting/ending, the number of pages, the number of copies, the result of a job, and so froth. It can also be envisaged that the image transfer apparatus 1706 registers the log information and image data, which are received form the digital multifunction apparatus 1707 using a network protocol (for example, FTP), as documents in the document management server 1701 in accordance with registration settings regarding folders as storage locations set in advance. As is the case with the document management client 1700, the image transfer apparatus 1706 controls the transfer of information to the document management server 1701 so that log information can be stored as document attributes in the attribute management server section 1702 and image data can be stored in the volume server section 1704.
In the above document management system, however, image data of a job generated by the digital multifunction apparatus 1707 is sent as it is to the image transfer apparatus 1706 and stored in the document management server 1701, and therefore data size is large. For example, when image data generated by a copy job or a print job has a resolution of 600×600 dpi, the image data having the resolution of 600×600 dpi is sent as it is to the image transfer apparatus 1706 and stored in the document management server 1701. The image data having the resolution of 600×600 dpi is large in size irrespective of whether it is multivalued color image data or binary black-and-white image data. In transferring such image data which is large in data size, a problem such as increased data transmission time, increased network load, or increased space used in a storage device of the document management server 1701 arises.